Kamal Ghorui
SpaceX has shifted its long-standing ambition of sending humans to Mars to the backburner and is now prioritising the establishment of a human settlement on the Moon, founder Elon Musk said on Sunday.The move marks a strategic recalibration for the private space company, which has emerged as a major contractor for NASA, and also brings Musk’s plans closer in line with US President Donald Trump’s renewed emphasis on lunar exploration.“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” Musk said in a post on X, the social media platform he bought in 2022.Musk cited logistical challenges as a key reason behind the shift, noting that travel to Mars is constrained by planetary alignment. “It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months,” he said, adding, “We can launch to the Moon every 10 days.”SpaceX’s Mars ambitions have long drawn scepticism, with critics arguing that Musk’s timelines were overly optimistic. The billionaire has repeatedly revised his projections for human missions to the Red Planet. In 2016, he said passengers could head to Mars as early as 2024, provided financing and technical hurdles were cleared. That followed his 2011 prediction to the Wall Street Journal that SpaceX astronauts would reach Mars in “Best case, 10 years, worst case, 15 to 20 years.”The renewed lunar focus comes as the Trump administration has signalled a shift in US space policy. In an executive order issued late last year, Trump said he wanted Americans on the Moon by 2028 under NASA’s Artemis programme, for which SpaceX is a key contractor. This marked a departure from Trump’s earlier goal of planting the American flag on Mars before the end of his four-year term.NASA currently plans to return astronauts to the Moon’s surface in mid-2027 as part of the Artemis 3 mission, though the schedule has been pushed back multiple times. Industry experts say further delays are likely, citing the unfinished lunar lander being developed by SpaceX.Despite the pivot, Musk said the Moon offers faster progress toward building a permanent settlement. Easier access to the Moon “means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city,” he said.However, Musk stressed that Mars remains part of SpaceX’s long-term vision. The company would “also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years,” he added.
